Preparing for Summer

It snowed today. In Las Vegas. On April 9th. The kicker is that last Saturday it was 92 degrees! Apparently Mother Nature is not planning to stick to a normal schedule this year. But the 92 degree weather reminded me that, like it or not, hot weather is just around the corner.

Last Summer I realized that I needed to plan ahead and prepare for Summer by baking breads and freezing them. When it's 110 degrees outside and the AC is running full gear all day long, the last thing I want to do is heat up the oven to make bread. I found myself in a pickle last year because I didn't want to bake, but I didn't want to buy bread either. Not this year! We will be fully stocked (or at least close to it).

I'm planning to spend the next month or so of nice weather to bake a lot of extras. I actually started this week and my husband noticed a lot of extra bread floating around. I assured him there is a plan! And that plan is to bake and freeze:

1) Whole Wheat Bread
2) Artisan Bread
3) Tortillas
4) Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns (I'm tweaking whole wheat recipes)
5) Scones, Muffins, and Cinnamon Rolls

I've never made tortillas so that will be a new adventure for me. But the rest are old hat and it should be fairly easy to just bake in between cooking.  I was going to make pitas as well, but we can "bake" those on the grill over the Summer.

Hopefully all this preparing will make for less heat in the kitchen this Summer!